There are a variety of decking systems on the market today. Most of the decking systems utilize some sort of fastening means such as a screw, nail or staple to attach the decking members to the underlying joists. Furthermore, with most decking systems, the fastening means is installed directly through the top face of the decking members to the joist below. However, these decking systems have some major drawbacks.
The common method of securing the decking members to the underlying joists by directly fastening the decking member to the joist through the top face of the decking member has many drawbacks. First, the fastening means are visible and this leads to many shortcomings. The heads of the fastening means are unattractive and take away from the facade of the natural or synthetic wood, the fastening means may rust and discolor the decking members, the fastening means may work loose and become a safety hazard to persons walking on top of the decking structure, finally hammer blows to decking surface during installation may damage the surface of the decking member.
Another problem with this common method is that installation may become problematic because one cannot see exactly where the joists lie underneath the decking member. Therefore, numerous times during installation of the decking members, the person installing the deck may miss a joist or only partially strike a joist and have to back out the fastening means or leave the fastening means in the decking member and install yet another fastening means to secure the decking member to the joist. Once again, this problems leads to the aforementioned problems with visible fastening means.
Another shortcoming of the most common method of deck installation is that after a period time the decking members may loosen and move. The movement of the decking members causes problems. First, the decking does not keep its uniform look, which results in loss of aesthetic appeal. In addition, the decking members may move enough to cause the loss of the sought after gaps between the installed decking members. If the gaps between the decking members disappear, there is nowhere for rainwater or other liquids to drain from the decking structure.
The current deck systems that use plates have some major drawbacks. First, with most deck systems that use plates, the fasteners are secured upwards from underneath the decking member. This makes installation and maintenance troublesome because the person installing or maintaining the deck must work from underneath the deck. This situation is especially troublesome with decking that is situated close to the ground and is hard to reach from underneath the decking members.